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Old Anhydrous Tanks Make Great Fuel Trailers
Want a low cost farm fuel trailer? Check with your local cooperative or anhydrous ammonia supplier. If they have old tanks sitting on the back lot, you could get yourself a deal. Cooperative Producers, Inc., a south central Nebraska cooperative, has found recycled NH3 tanks to be really popular with their customers.
"We have recycled 35 tanks this year that had no value for anhydrous application anymore," says Steve Rath, Mid Nebraska Lubricants, a division of Cooperative Producers. "Farmers and commercial users alike love the mobility these tanks offer."
Rath says the cooperative has eliminated all its old tanks this year, including any that were questionable. Converting them to haul fuel was easy and took only a few hours of labor.
"Our maintenance crew took out all the valves and put plugs in at the bottom so it would be convenient to drain out any moisture that collected," says Rath. "They steamed them out and let them sit with all the holes open. Then they welded 2-in. fittings for a vent cap at one end and mounted either 12 or 20-volt pumps on the other end. Once the tanks were sandblasted, a primary epoxy coat and a finish coat were applied. "
For the cooperative, it meant investing a couple hundred bucks in labor on pieces of fully depreciated equipment. The buyer gets a fuel tank he can transport and one that, at least in Nebraska, doesn't require a containment area.
"A new 1,000-gal. tank equipped to go on an irrigation pump will cost a farmer $1,000," says Rath. "We can send these out for $650. With a high speed pump on it, it will run $1,230 to $1,300. I've had guys who wanted 8 to 10 of them, if we had them."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steve Rath, Mid Nebraska Lubricants, P. O. Box 37, Juniata, Neb. 68955 (ph 402 751-2125; toll free 888 580-3244; fax 402 751-2927; www.heartlandco-op.com/index. cfm?show= 10&mid=39).


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2007 - Volume #31, Issue #5